Skyhawks Name Stevenson as Head Track Coach

With 28 years of collegiate coaching experience under his belt, Sauk Valley Community College has announced that Mike Stevenson has been tabbed to lead the newly formed Track and Field teams in its inaugural season.  Stevenson brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table.

Stevenson served as the Head Track and Field Coach at Western Illinois University for 13 seasons, and added another 10 seasons in an assistant coaching role at WIU.  He also served as an Assistant Coach for 3 seasons at the Big Ten affiliated Purdue University and spent another 2 seasons as the Head Coach at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).  A five time Conference Coach of the Year while at WIU, Stevenson has worked with every event on the team.

“I am tremendously excited about the prospects for track and field at Sauk Valley Community College.  The greater Sauk Valley area has a wealth of high school track and field talent. I’ve said it before, track and field at Sauk gives our local kids a great opportunity, and I look forward to being able to help develop that talent in the future.”

While at Western Illinois, the Stevenson led charges rewrote the record books.  Athletes under Stevenson’s care owned 44 school records and marked their names in the Top Ten performers in the school’s history nearly 500 times.  While serving as the head coach, the Leathernecks earned three conference championship honors, two for men and one for the women. The conference titles on the men’s side have proven to be the only titles in the school’s NCAA Division I history.  Eight track and field athletes earned Conference Athlete of the Year honors, six were named as the Conference Newcomer of the Year. Stevenson has coached 24 NCAA Division I National qualifiers, with 16 of those earning All-American status. He is a USATF Level II certified coach in the jumps.  As a Western Illinois student-athlete himself, Stevenson earned All-Conference and Academic All-Conference honors multiple times, as well as serving as a team captain during his junior and senior years. He still remains in the school's Top Ten list as a sprinter. Stevenson holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from WIU.

“I can’t wait to get this program on its feet.  It has already been fun starting the recruiting process and the interest level in the program has been awesome.  We have already developed quite a nice list of recruits, and really look forward to kicking the recruiting into high gear once the area high schools start competing a lot.  I am hoping that my recruiting background in this area helps us land some good talent” Stevenson added.

For more information about that Sauk Track and Field program, contact Head Coach Michael Stevenson at michael.p.stevenson@svcc.edu  or call the Athletic Offices at (815)835-6467.